If it's an actual job where a paycheck is involved agreed, it isn't. If it's Nazi Calvinist bullshiat as described in TFA, there's little difference.

Working to get food/water is nazi Calvinist bullshiat? America was founded by people putting in work from dawn till dusk just to provide food/water for their family. Your logic is what is wrong with America, for some reason people think they are entitled to more than they are for simply existing. I'm sorry, but walking around in the street picking up trash for 15min does not get you a paycheck. Food and water is actually pretty generous

Actually, America was founded by slaves putting work from dawn till dusk just to provide riches to someone else's family. Seriously. We've had slavery and indentured servitude as the basis of our wealth for at least 60% of this country's history - look it up. This country was built on the backs of First Nations folks, slaves from Central and South America, slaves from Africa, immigrants from pretty much every friggin' country on the planet, indentured servants, even child workers.

Much of the agitation against unions, against pensions, against social supports, comes from the very same mindset you're espousing - and was espoused throughout this country's history. We've been fortunate, in that folks like Lincoln, Eisenhower, Roosevelt, and others understood that the whole point of society is to ensure that, from a social & financial perspective, the bottom continues to rise even as the top does so.

We've taken a huge step backward from that in the last three decades or so. We've unraveled social supports, destroyed unions, and erode the very concept of retirement (except for the rich, of course.) We continue to take money, time, and resources from the poor and hand them over to the rich in increasing volume and speed, even as the infrastructure we spent the last century constructing during WWI, both New Deals, and WWII falls apart. Bridges, roads, dams, and other public works crumble. Social supports are slowly destroyed, robbed by the rich and reviled by the clueless.

BronyMedic:The A.I.S.B.: Yes, the homeless are all poor just because they are lazy! It can't be anything to do with the poor availability of mental care, and they couldn't possibly have disabilities prohibiting them from finding employment!!! And of course, every single business is just chomping at the bit to hire people with no houses, places to bathe, or proper clothing, that are likely clinically insane and uneducated! It's not like we're in an economic recession with scarce jobs or anything!

\you people disgust me.

You do realize that the city of Seattle has entire programs dedicated to helping the homeless through offering them jobs, tuition and financial aid support, and housing placement, right?

God forbid we offer people who are "homeless" jobs to help them rise above their current socioeconomic state. I mean, they MIGHT have to pick up trash or something. That's not American work for entitled white folks! That's foreign taco-jockey work or something. Or other indignant right wing furious commentary you would like to make.

God forbid someone have to do manual labor instead of set behind a computer all day and debate on FARK. Inhumane, I tells you!

/it's a disgusting attitude to label ALL homeless people as non-compliant mentally ill (on average only 1/4 - 1/2 of the homeless population are), and then act offended that someone MIGHT offer them the opportunity to work in exchange for benefits to allow them to rise above their current plight. Drug rehab programs and free/reduced cost mental health programs would go a LONG way to solving the homeless problem, but it's not the only quick fix.//The solution is neither forced manual labor, nor handouts. Stop pretending like one spectrum or the other will be the solution.

Nobody's stopping anybody from feeding the homeless, they're just asking them to refrain from doing it on public property in the middle of a city park.

There are numerous health, safety and social service reasons for wanting the mission to serve their food in more appropriate and sanitary locations, instead of in the middle of a public square, especially now that the homeless population has soared to the extent that their use of this public space crowds out everyone else when it occurs.

I'm surprised at the over-reactions here on Fa..., oh wait, no I'm not.

Takami said those wishing to feed the homeless need to coordinate with the Operation: Sack Lunch program, which serves up to 300 people a day at the city's outdoor meal site, located under the I-5 bridge at 6th Avenue and Columbia Street.

Wikipedia: Estimates of Seattle's homeless population put the number somewhere around 6,000 to 8,000 people; up to 1,000 are children and young adults.